Pro-Khalistan slogans raised at Rahul Gandhi's event in UK

The group shouted “Khalistan Zindabad” as the warm-up speeches were being delivered at the Indian Overseas Congress UK Mega Conference. They were forcibly removed by the police before Rahul Gandhi arrived.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi&nbsp | &nbspPhoto Credit:&nbspPTI

London: In a major security lapse, Khalistan sympathisers gatecrashed the event where Rahul Gandhi’s was supposed to address Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom on August 25.

Bypassing security arrangements, the group was able to secure seats at the event and caused disruption before the Congress President arrived. They shouted pro-Khalistan slogans and refused to leave the event after which the police intervened and escorted them out, reported the Hindu.

A group of three men and one woman managed to infiltrate the event and secured seats alongside a thousand Congress supporters of the Indian-origin in the Ramada Hotel in West London. The breach of security occurred at the final leg of Rahul Gandhi’s to the UK. Gandhi was on a four-day visit to Germany and the United Kingdom to interact with the Indians the two nation as part of an NRI outreach programme by Congress.

The group shouted “Khalistan Zindabad” as the warm-up speeches were being delivered –to which other people at the event responded by chanting “Congress party Zindabad”.

The Khalistan supporters had been sitting for hours at the Indian Overseas Congress UK Mega Conference and were initially asked politely by the police to leave the event, failing which they had to be forced out.

Rahul Gandhi arrived at the event 30 minutes after the hecklers were removed from the event and addressed the gathering in Hindi.

At an earlier event at the London School of Economics, Gandhi told reporters during a Q&A that he has no visions of becoming the next Prime Minister of India as he views himself “fighting an ideological battle”. He said he realised there is a “risk to Indian state” and this change has come to him after 2014.

The Congress chief said, when asked about becoming the next prime minister, “I don't have these visions. I view myself as fighting an ideological battle and this change has come to me after 2014. I realised that there's a risk to Indian state, to the Indian way of doing things and I'm defending that.”

Pro-Khalistan slogans raised at Rahul Gandhi's event in UKDescription:The group shouted “Khalistan Zindabad” as the warm-up speeches were being delivered at the Indian Overseas Congress UK Mega Conference. They were forcibly removed by the police before Rahul Gandhi arrived. Times Now